We hosted our first St Joseph's Table this weekend.The custom began as a Sicilian gesture of gratitude to thank St Joseph for delivering them from a famine. Italian families and parishes still keep up this tradition today, and use the time spent preparing the table to pray for their beloved dead. I got interested in this devotion when I wrote a term paper about it for my American Catholic popular piety class at Our Lady's University.
Our St Joseph altar featured statues and images of St Joseph, pictures of deceased family members, Sicilian food including eggplants, lemons, oranges, and 2 pasta entrees (Br Justin's red sauce and one with garabanzo beans), ciabatta bread (recalling St Joseph's slippers), zeppole, fava beans, and a lucky lemon.
Traditionally, a portion of the food was donated to the poor. Since modern food pantries prefer non perishable goods, people brought canned food instead.
And I got some pre-Easter practice with my lamb pan. Joshua is pretty cute, isn't he?
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